Time to Move On....

Sunday morning came way too fast. We all got up, Mike made us a nice breakfast, Rico and I packed all our things, Wendy and I took a quick trip to Wal Mart for an umbrella stroller for Josh, and before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye. I was surprised at how sad I felt all morning and when it came to hug Mike and Wendy goodbye, I couldn't stop a few tears, and neither could Wendy. I felt guilty taking Josh away from Wendy and Katie away from Mike. We all felt so welcomed and comfortable there, it was just hard to leave. Thank you again you two, we love you! We promised each other that it wouldn't be another 12 years before we got together again.

With that, Mike and Wendy led us to the airport, and as they went on their way, we headed to the airport for our next destination, Victoria B.C.

The Meal

Well, Saturday night's dinner turned out to be a complete success, Rico, Mike, Wendy and I spent about 6 hours preparing our feast, Rico, of course at the helm, everyone arrived around 4:00, we sat down to dinner about 5:30 and within 15 minutes the meal was over. It takes so long to prepare, and eating all the wonderful food only takes a few minutes! Everyone loved it, they were all so impressed with Rico's dinner, not that we needed to impress them, they already welcomed Rico into the family with open arms. I have never met a more warm and loving family in my life, all 8 thousand of them! :)

We had 12 people for dinner that night...Aunt Gerry, my mom, Harriet and Peter, Rob and Louise, Mae and Ross, Mike and Wendy, and Rico and I, and of course little Josh and Katie. They were our entertainment for the evening.

The evening was full of good food, lots of laughter and lots of alcohol too...it was a total success and I was sad when it all came to an end.

A Weekend at Mike & Wendy's

We got back to Mike at Wendy's in the mid afternoon on Friday, and immediately Wendy and Rico left to go grocery shopping for our big Mexican feast on Saturday night. Our Mexican feast has grown from a simple dinner to thank Mike and Wendy for letting us stay with them, to a great big dinner party, that's not hard to do with this family.

I told Wendy a few weeks ago that we'd like to cook them dinner one night while we are here and I asked if they liked Mexican food, and she said sure, we'd love that. So the night we arrived, Wendy said that they had dinner with Harriet and Peter and Mae and Ross the other night and they mentioned our dinner, and Ross said what time. So the numbers are growing. Then I said since they are all coming, can I invite Rob and Louise too, because I know them best, and I'd love to spend time with them too, and if they come, my mom is staying with them, so she should be here too, and then well, Auntie should be here too, if my mom's going to be here, so in a matter of minutes, or little dinner party grew to 13 people! Rico's a little worried, about the food and about this much family at one time again! They are all so easing going, we assured him he doesn't have to worry and besides, he has lots of help. Right now, while I sit with the kids, Mike and Wendy are taking instructions from Rico and they are cooking away, it smells very good in here now.

So that's where we are now, Katie is about ready for a bottle, so I better go for now. I'll tell you all about our meal and how it turned out later on.....chili rellenos, chicken enchiladas, Spanish rice, beans, guacamole and chips and stuffed jalapeno peppers, and alcohol, with this family there is always alcohol involved.....

Winter getting in the way....and my mistakes

Friday morning after we left our beautiful hotel, we thought we would take the very short 15 minute drive to see one more beautiful place, Moraine Lake, it's also another favorite of mine. We turned onto the road that would take us there, and lo and behold, right in front of us was like 5 feet of snow across the road. Apparently, Moraine Lake is an area that they don't open during the winter, you can only get there on cross country skis.

OK, so let's recap here shall we...

1. Johnston's Canyon was too treacherous because of 4 inches of ice across all the walkways, so we couldn't do that.

2. Our beautiful drive north on Thursday turned out to be long, boring and unexciting because I didn't think to look at a map first and so we took the wrong road. I thought I knew what I was doing....

3. Last but not least, Moraine Lake was inaccessible because of all the snow.

We may laugh about all this years from now, but right now, it seems quite disappointing to me.

But now for the highlights, which surpass all the disappointments:

1. A winter wonderland, so much beauty everywhere you look

2. Gentle falling snow most every day

3. Sleigh ride

4. Rest and relaxation

5. Good food

6. Beautiful hotels and views

7. Quality time together

As far as I'm concerned, our trip to the mountains was perfect....

Sleigh Ride!

A Long Drive and a Sleigh Ride

We started our day nice and early, Rico got a nice work out in, we had some breakfast and then we all piled in our car and headed north. We just wanted to go for a drive so Rico could experience as much of this beautiful countryside as possible. We drove for about an hour and a half hoping to find a nice lake or river to sit and have a picnic, but not only did we never find anything like that, nothing really looked familiar to me. I've been here many times in the past, but not for many years, but I thought something should look familiar. Anyway, Joshua started getting ants in his pants, he was tired of being in his car seat for so long, so for about half an hour we tried to find a place, any place to stop or even turn around, finally we found a turn off and headed back towards home. We found a little town called Golden, a very small place, we drove a couple blocks and actually found a cute little park, we were very excited. We let Josh out and he ran around for a bit and then found the swing...he loves the swings. His papa pushed him for several minutes, then we ate our lunch in the warm car and headed back home. We were about an hour from our hotel at that point.

We made it back about 3:30, just enough time to go to our room, unpack our stuff, repack a few new things and then we headed downstairs to the front of the lake for a sleigh ride! A sleigh ride, can you believe it (thank you Judith and Ken!) We went on an hour long sleigh ride, with two horses named Mo and Joe and a driver named Matt, all the way to the back of the lake, it was so incredible! The scenery was so gorgeous, it was snowing very lightly, and the horses had jingle bells all over them, it was so peaceful and so fantastic! We rode ride out onto the lake to turn around and then we headed back. It went by rather quickly, but it was sure fun. Josh wasn't too sure what to make of it and Katie slept most of the way, but Rico and I really loved it.

After our sleigh ride, we came up stairs, ordered room service, had a wonderful meal and some wine, and now here we are. We already have to check out tomorrow, and I don't think either one of us is ready to. I think we both like it here at the Chateau the best. I'm ready to come back in the summer time so we can experience this all over again without any ice slowing us down. I hope it won't be another 12 years. Tomorrow we head back to Mike and Wendy's for the weekend. Bye for now...

Cute Kids' Shots